Reince Priebus reportedly in hot water as Trump confidante says he's 'in way over his head'

The White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, may be on thin
ice with President Donald Trump, according to several sources who
spoke with Politico.

The sources, who spoke with either Trump or top administration
officials, said Trump campaign aides were starting to draft lists
of potential replacements for the chief of staff, who formerly
served as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Included on the lists of possible replacements were top White
House aides Kellyanne Conway and Rick Dearborn, economic adviser
Gary Cohn, and lobbyist David Urban, Politico reported.

The Politico story came after Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax who
is a Trump confidant, said during
CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday that Priebus' ouster was
perhaps necessary. Ruddy said the botched rollout of Trump's
executive order temporarily barring travel to the US from seven
majority-Muslim countries and a mishandling of other key
functions of his post were reasons Priebus needed to be let go.

"The White House is showing not the amount of order that we need
to see," Ruddy told CNN. "I think there's a lot of weakness
coming out of the chief of staff."

Ruddy subsequently spoke with The Washington Post and The New
York Times, going into further detail on his thoughts about the
White House chief of staff.

"A lot of people have been saying, 'Look, Donald has some
problems,' and I think he realizes that he's got to make some
changes going forward," Ruddy told The Post, adding: "It's my view that
Reince is the problem. I think on paper Reince looked good as the
chief of staff — and Donald trusted him — but it's pretty clear
the guy is in way over his head. He's not knowledgeable of how
federal agencies work, how the communications operations work. He
botched this whole immigration rollout. This should've been a win
for Donald, not two or three weeks of negative publicity."

Speaking with
The Times, Ruddy said Trump "doesn't waste a lot of time" if
he believes someone is underperforming at a job.

"If he thinks somebody is not performing, he moves pretty
quickly," he said.

But later on Sunday evening, Ruddy announced on Twitter that he
spoke with Priebus and seemed to be more optimistic about the
aide's future in his current position.

Ruddy tweeted: "Reince just briefed me on new
WH plans. Impressive! CNN today my personal view. Told him I have
'open mind' based on his results."

In his Times interview, Ruddy said Priebus "gave me a briefing on
all the things they are doing to improve and streamline
communications" and added: "He asked me if I would keep an open
mind as they make progress. I said, 'Absolutely.'"

But Ruddy said he would not retract his earlier criticism. The
pair agreed to meet for dinner in the near future, he told The
Times. A decadelong friend of Trump and a member of his
Mar-a-Lago Florida club, Ruddy said he spent a half-hour with
Trump on Friday night following the president's dinner with
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Tension between the factions in the White House loyal to either
Priebus or chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former head of
Breitbart News, have boiled over into media reports frequently
since Trump took office, though the two men have gone on the record to say they
get along very well.

Though the White House did not immediately reply to a request for
comment from Business Insider, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the
administration's deputy communications director, gave Priebus
credit for Trump's early moves in office in a statement to The
Times.

"The president has made unbelievable progress in just his first
21 days, bringing back jobs, saving taxpayers money, and securing
the nation," she said. "Reince has successfully led the team that
has implemented President Trump's agenda."

And on Monday, Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe"
and whose words carry importance to Trump, tweeted that Priebus' job was "safe."